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Pirate Maps!

Hi! I just joined the community this evening, and was going to post this
after I finished it, but everyone seems to be really responsive and helpful
with suggestions/critiques so I figured I'd toss up a WIP.

First ever colour map attempt, did some DnD type doodles back in
highschool. A fantastical version of the Caribbean as part of a
graphic novel project. All under copyright I'm afraid, but I'll post some
freebie ornaments and such if there's interest.

To Do:(Quite a bit more colour.)
I'll be coloring the ornament in the upper right and land masses as well as
labelling islands and I'm puzzling out a way to depict detailed current
directions in a visually pleasing way.

Here's the flow map I pieced together from a weather site, going to try to
incorporate this concept... just prettier. >.> Any ideas would be appreciated,
it's 4:28am and my creative juices ran dry a couple hours ago.

Best I can figure is to do little arrows like this, just lower the opacity and make
'em a little fuzzier/blurry. OR Larger transparent arrows, all stylized to fit the
period.

The first idea that popped into my mind was Poseidon blowing wind. At least I think it is Poseidon. I've seen similar pictures before with an old man blowing the wind into a sail, or making the sea tumultuous.

Bill Stickers is innocent! It isn't Bill's fault that he was hanging out in the wrong place.Please make an effort to tag all threads. This will greatly enhance the usability of the forums.

You might want to try showing the currents using something like contour lines...(though I'll admit I have never seen this before)

Here is a quick mockup on the gulf chunk of your map. I just posterized a greyscale "flow-density map" that was a little too flat in the middle... Ideally instead of continual lines, if you could use segments that taper at both ends it might look nicer...

But then you'd still arrow heads to show the direction the current is flowing in unless there's a more cunning way to show direction of flow without using arrow heads...dunno. You're the waterman, RobA - you figure it out!